Rufus Wainwright and Jörn Weisbrodt live on a quiet street in the Annex where the birds chirp and the dogs bark and all is right with the world.

Singer/composer Rufus Wainwright, right, and Jörn Weisbrodt, seen here at the Teddy Award ceremony in Berlin last month, spend their time in Toronto in a rental house in the Annex full of the treasures.

They are world travellers who’ve deliberately picked an inconspicuous house in a quiet neighbourhood. Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, N.Y., to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. After his parents divorced, he was raised in Montreal by his mother, who died in 2010 of cancer. His sister, Martha Wainwright, is also an iconic singer.

He has recorded seven albums of original music and penned the classical opera Prima Donna, which made its North American debut at Luminato in 2010 and won the Dora Mavor Moore for Outstanding New Musical/Opera in 2011.

Weisbrodt was born in Hamburg, Germany. Pre-Luminato, he was director of The Watermill Center, “a laboratory for performance” established in 1992 in Long Island, N.Y. by director/artist Robert Wilson.

Wainwright and Weisbrodt wed on Aug. 23, 2012 in Montauk, N.Y., where they have a home.

“It is not a palatial, high-end home on the ocean,” says Wainwright. “It is from the ’50s, an old kit house from Sears Roebuck. We put a 300-year-old floor in and an Austrian chandelier that belonged to Irving Berlin’s musical secretary. For our wedding, we asked for donations for an Airstream (trailer) to use as a guest house.

“We’re on the poor (for The Hamptons) side of town. I know a lot of other musicians who are far more ostentatious. I’m so Canadian.”

“It’s really more like a cottage,” adds Weisbrodt.

They also have a 400-square-foot pied à terre in Manhattan which Weisbrodt describes as “a jewel box,” with handmade French wallpaper favoured by Jackie Kennedy.

They moved to Toronto in January, 2012, after Weisbrodt got the position at Luminato, which runs this year from June 14 to 23 and headlines the Canadian premiere of Mark Morris Dance Group’s L’Allegro, Il Penseroso Ed IL Moderato; the Canadian premiere of the classic Chinese tale Feng Yi Ting, an opera directed by Atom Egoyan; and Joni: A Portrait in Song — A Birthday Happening Live at Massey Hall.

Wainwright tours incessantly and Weisbrodt is often on the road to source material for Luminato. This is the first day they’ve been together in T.O. in three months.

“I’m making a concerted effort to be here when Luminato comes around,” says Wainwright. “I’ll be ‘The Lady of Luminato.’ ”

“The First Lady,” Weisbrodt corrects.

Relative newlyweds, they are an impossibly attractive couple and flirtatious with one another. They play footsies — their black socks merging across the carpet.

“I’m writing a lot and touring to make money,” says Wainwright. “I’m about to write another opera; Canada will be happy.” He refuses to divulge further details.

Why rent in the Annex? “I feel like an old Hollywood train wreck,” Wainwright explains. “I travel the great capitals of Europe. I’ll be 40 in the summer and there is something to be said in being on a quiet street with birds chirping and dogs barking and a beautiful husband to take care of.”

“And a fire,” adds Weisbrodt.

They have the top two floors of the house. There are two bedrooms upstairs, one of which is the guest room, two and a half baths, a sunroom (which is “freezing”), a piano room where Wainwright composes, a dining room and living room.

“This was the last place our real estate agent showed us,” Weisbrodt recalls. “Our goal was to have a house with no neighbours above us.”

“There is a tenant downstairs,” Wainwright says. “Now we run around on people’s heads.”

No one has complained about the piano playing yet.

A vivid fuchsia orchid shares real estate on the glass coffee table in the living room with an assortment of Wainwright’s awards. “Orchids thrive on benign neglect,” I tell them.

“You should see our fridge for benign neglect,” Wainwright cracks.

Oh, thank God they are not perfect.

There are beautiful hardwood floors throughout and a charcoal grey tile floor in the renovated kitchen. The place is cosy yet sophisticated.

“Jörn is more of a purist in his sense of decor,” Wainwright attests. “I’m the bohemian. I’ll get the colourful pillows, the ratty tapestry. It’s my Irish messiness. Jörn tones it down by his precision. If he were single, there would only be a chair and lamps. I’m a clutter person.”

Yet Weisbrodt is the collector. He frequents antique stores, flea markets and eBay.

He bought the couch at GUFF Furniture in Leslieville. It is of Danish design by Finn Juhl; Weisbrodt knew his wife.

The desk is also Scandinavian. “I bought it for Rufus on eBay for composing music,” he explains.

“It’s basically for display,” says Wainwright. “It’s too delicate. You can’t write an opera about murder on that. It has to be a drawing-room comedy.”

The red stool at the desk was designed by Italian Post-War designer Carlo Mollino. “I paid $500 U.S. for it on eBay,” Weisbrodt says. “It is now worth $3,500.”

An oak and glass table by Mollino for the Casa Orengo, 1949, sold at Christie’s New York for over $3.8 million in 2005.

“Which explains why we have a stool,” cracks Wainwright.

The purple chair in the living room window is a parting gift for Weisbrodt from Robert Wilson.

The piano room is Wainwright’s fave. The Wizard of Oz figurines on the piano (which was Wainwright’s mom’s) come from Carrie Fisher, who they spend Christmas with. He knows Fisher from Marianne Faithfull. Of course.

Weisbrodt favours the living room, where he reads by the fire.

His runner-up: the dining room, which serves as his office. “I love that table and chairs,” he says.

Their provenance is Bertolt Brecht’s actress-wife Helene Weigel, who took over administration of the Berliner Ensemble, a touring German theatre formed by Brecht in 1949, when her husband died.

“The set came from the Berliner canteen,” Weisbrodt explains. “I worked at the Berliner Ensemble and the technical director gave it to me. I love objects that have a history; you create stories around you with objects. It’s like a photo album, but no one collects photos anymore.”

The Buddha on the fireplace is from Susan Sontag.

A collage of four pictures from Wainwright’s first album hangs in the dining room near a sculpture embedded in cement by an artist in Long Island. It features an Alcoholics Anonymous handbook on one side and a bottle of gin on the other.

On the second floor landing is a photo of Cary Grant in the pool with his roomie Randolph Scott. It is a gift Wainwright gave to Weisbrodt, whom he met in May 2005.

“We passed the seven-year itch,” Wainwright says.

“This is my version of the how-we-met story,” says Weisbrodt. “I was at the Opera House in Berlin and wanted to do a concert project with Rufus. An ex-lover of mine (a dancer) gave me a CD of Rufus and I thought the music was amazing. A mutual friend arranged for me to see him after his show in Berlin.”

“I became the project” says Wainwright.

“It was at a birthday barbecue on Long Island that it took its course,” continues Weisbrodt.

It was sealed with a kiss the next day when they met for a beach date.

“It was a good few months between the kiss and show,” says Wainwright. “You courted me.”

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.